'How to be green? Many people have asked us this important question. It's really very simple and requires no expert knowledge or complex skills. Here's the answer. Consume less. Share more. Enjoy life.' Penny Kemp and Derek Wall

27 Jun 2008

Principal Speaker supports RMT cleaners

'Poverty exists in the midst of plenty in London. Outsourcing and 'competition' have driven workers wages down. The Green Party made campaigning for fair pay a key plank of our election campaign in May. We must keep the pressure up. I support the RMT tube workers, they must be supported in their campaign for a living wage and decent working conditions'Derek Wall, Green Party Principal Speaker

More than 700 RMT Tube Cleaners who work for 4 private contractors voted for strike action to win the London living wage and decent living conditions. They voted for a series of strikes with a landslide of over 99%. As the RMT general secretary says, "In 21st century London, a living wage is reckoned to be at least £7.50 an hour. We have members who are being paid at rock-bottom minimum wage rates little more than £5.50 an hour, and the abuse has to stop." The people who clean one of the world's most prestigious metro systems have the right to be paid a wage on which they can afford to live in London. The previous mayor promised the cleaners on Metronet contracts they would receive the London living wage as soon as they passed into Transport for London control. Metronet is now under Transport for London control, but the Cleaners remain on the same low pay and degrading conditions. If Boris Johnson wants to be seen as mayor for all Londoners, he surely should honour that pledge. The private contractors also continue to impose horrifyingly poor conditions; including the barbaric practice of "third party sackings" whereby cleaners can be dismissed with no disciplinary hearing or right of appeal, at the behest of parties other than the employer - a device used to get rid of trade union activists. This is why RMT cleaners want a change to 28 days' holiday, sick pay, decent pension scheme and travel facilites.( All other workers on the Tube get free travel as a right, but not the worst-paid!) With £1million-a-week profit, the share-holders of Tubelines (the other major privateering company now Metronet's been brought under Transport for London) are unlikely to feel a noticeable dent in their pockets if our Tube Cleaners get a living wage and basic conditions. CATP believes these issues are a Health & Safety question for passengers ( remember the Kings Cross fire). If you find a carriage or platform has a build-up of slippery or combustible materials, you are perfectly entitled to complain immediately to the station supervisor. We support the Tube Cleaners action and want cleaning brought back into the Public Sector.

If you want to help the Campaign Against Tube Privatisation, phone Dave Welsh 0207- 837- 0845 to find out about more action and send your views to Boris Johnson at City Hall, Queen's Walk, SE1 2AA